👋🏼 I'm Alco.

As a technologist and a performer, I'm passionate about the intersection between the arts and technology, and finding creative, effective and scalable ways of using social media and community management tactics to build engaged audiences.

About Me

My name is Ricardo Alcocer, but you can call me Alco. I'm a software engineer, specialzed in Developer Relations, helping companies grow and leverage their developer communities. Connecting people with people is my super power, helping developers succeed is my passion.

I've been playing guitar since I was in high school. However, back in 2012 I started a more structured study of the instrument and improving my technique, and I'm currently in the process of recording my first EP.

When I'm not doing software engineering, developer relations or playing the guitar, you may find me holding a deck of cards and hanging out with magicians at conventions or at The Magic Castle in Holywood, CA.

I love staying productive and below you can find some of the side projects I'm working on or have been involved in the past.

Build Native Cross-Platform Apps with Appcelerator

During my time working as Director of Developer Relations for Appcelerator, I realized that all of the books written about the product assumed some level of technical proficiency.

With this in mind, I dediced to write a book for Web Developers who wanted to get into mobile, but didn't have any kind of solid technical knowledge of the underlying mobile platforms. In this book I handhold my readers from setting up their development environment and planning the app, to building it and publishing it on the iPhone AppStore and Google Play.

Economía y Productividad con Software Libre

In 2010 I published a book about the important role that Open Source and Free Software played in the development of innovative products and how they were shaping what back then looked like our distant future.

After writing this book, I went on a book tour for almost a year, which led to the creation of a non-profit educational organization called Tecnología Libre, through which we empowered a young generation and guided them in the process of becoming technology entreprenuers by embracing the use of Free Software.

The book has been released under Creative Commons license and is available on Github on the link below.

Music

As an Instrumental Guitarist, I compose original music. I’m heavily influenced by highly technical acts such as Tony MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Marco Sfogli, Kiko Loureiro, Frank Gambale, Marty Friedman and others. However, I ❤️ melody, so in my music you’ll find a combination of progressive-rock, technical/shreddy guitar, a bit of jazz, and if I do my job right, singable melodies.

Card Magic

I've been practicing sleight-of-hand card magic for over 25 years and it has had a tremendous impact in my life and my career. I wrote a short ebook sharing some thoughts on this topic, and I include two cart tricks you can learn and perform yourself.

There's currently a book being written about magicians from Puerto Rico which includes a profile of myself, along with one original card routine. I'm honored and humbled of being part of such a project.

Since you're already here, here's a video of me performing a card routine.

The DevRelGuy Podcast

Guitar Jam Sessions over Facebook Live

I practice -almost- every day, and I usually make these practice sesssions available over Facebook Live. These are very informal sessions where I noddle, jam, talk, try new stuff...and I invite anyone to chat. I'd love it if you join! You can also find them archived on my YouTube Channel.

BONOBO

Bonobo is an online platform that turns Webinars and into fully-automated Lead Generation Machines.

With Bonobo, you simply create your video content, grab the Bonobo Event URL and advertise it. After the event, Bonobo will then give you a full report of your attendees, with automatic lead scoring based on their behavior so you can import it to your sales automation platform of choice.